Japanese Patent Laying-Open No, 2007-97345 (Patent Literature 1) discloses a parking assist device that allows for easy charging. This parking assist device includes a touch display having a display unit for displaying a situation around a vehicle and an input unit through which a target parking position of the vehicle is entered, and also includes a control device for performing parking assist control by calculating a route in accordance with the target parking position. The control device further performs, under predetermined conditions, alignment assist control between a vehicle-side power transfer/reception unit provided on the vehicle and an equipment-side power transfer/reception unit of equipment provided on the ground. Preferably, the parking assist device further includes a back monitor camera for taking an image of the situation around the vehicle. If an identifier indicating the equipment-side power transfer/reception unit is present in the vicinity of the target parking position in the surrounding situation whose image has been taken, the control device recognizes a position of the identifier and performs the alignment assist control.
According to this parking assist device, a driver can readily perform charging, and feels less troublesome when performing the charging. Accordingly, this device is expected to contribute to the spread of vehicles that need to be charged (see Patent Literature 1).